Thats the date it appears they are going to start rolling back restrictions. Slowly. Regardless of how many have had the Jab. Which given how cases are falling almost wholesale across England will be difficult to support. The issue seems to be that Witty is dictating backed by most of the Cabinet.
We have to be careful here, we can't let this slip, slow & steady. Kick covid in the balls & let's get back to normal,let's have a proper Christmas this year
The end is in sight and the government are desperate to cling onto their newfound power. I expect this to drag on some time yet.
Reckon that is a sensible date to aim for. Cases trending down doesn't provide immediate reprieve for hospital wards and intensive care units. Why not take this next two or three months to get cases as low as possible, provide a vaccine to as many people as possible, and aim to loosen restrictions when the weather is warmer and transmission rates are lower? When the end is seemingly in sight, every death caused now by a loosening of restrictions is an entirely preventable one. They're certainly not all old, crumbly folks either, mind. Try covering a covid ward and trying to escalate an independent fifty-something to HDU/ITU and not being able to do so simply because of a lack of beds and staff. Plenty of preventable deaths occurring because of the sheer number of positive inpatients.
With over 1000 people dying every day. EVERY DAY! We ought not to be too eager to ease restrictions. I hope that for once BOJO the Clown listens to the scientific advice rather than opt in favour of his libertarian instincts and keeps a lid on the virus until we can slowly get back to a form of normality safely. We owe it to the heroes manning the ICUs and their colleagues across the NHS to give them a break. I know that we are now very much in hock for the foreseeable future but now that the government has suddenly found not just a manic money tree but a whole forest of them, let's not chop it down just yet.
I'll have a look in my crystal ball. Hospital admissions fall as more people are half-vaccinated and the weather warms up with people opening windows and spending more time outside. The general populace will see this as the end of the pandemic and will start to relax even if the Government and experts urge caution. Before we know it it will be summer and life returns to something like normal and the majority will be at least half-vaccinated and a the over 70s will be fully vaccinated. Everyone has a nice summer and autumn then at the end of october cases start to rise again with new variants abounding.....
I think the measures have just prolonged the agony. 250,000 deaths were forecast at the beginning. With Lockdowns and measures that is 96,000 already and counting. Just kicking the can further down the road. There has to become a point where the government says it tried to help the people but it's down to the individual or we'll never get back to normal. That's with the vaccine.
He used 'open sesame' as his latest soundbite. Last summer beaches were packed and yet deaths/infections were at their lowest point. By this summer tens of millions will have had at least one if not both their vaccine doses. There should be no reason at all that by June we still have to wear masks and keep distancing.
Distancing is the big one isn't it. It's so restrictive to many businesses. Sadly I expect it to be the last to go.
Distancing, masks, handwashing and vaccinations have nearly eliminated flu within the UK this winter. Should we abandon these measures when in a normal year thousands die from something that we have shown is now preventable? Not arguing either way, but if we can save lives by simple measures should we as a society?
It's very smart to not allow number of vaccinations to dictate policy. If the vaccinations are successful, there will be a drop in other key figures (cases with symptoms, hospitalisations, deaths) and that's what will be used to make the decisions on. If those numbers don't drop, the vaccination wasn't successful, so why would you base policy on a vaccination rollout that was unsuccessful?
Not unless we ban cars to stop people dying in them or killing in them, ban booze so people don't ruin their liver, ban cigs to save lungs etc...
Can't blame them for taking things steady tbh because as soon as they things relax things a bit the great British public will just go waaaheeey we're away and fk things up again.. Lets face it they were bad enough down south last weekend and that's still lockdown. After seeing the state of my lad last week ( previously a fit 30 year old) anybody who says its like Flu are definitely talking absolute crap but fortunately he is now on the mend.
Simple measures!? Everything is closed and it is pretty much illegal to do anything, how is that a simple measure?
We have definitely got to continue with most, if not all of these measures, to try and eradicate viruses
Can't believe I'm doing this. For someone who is into lots of different sports, you fail to grasp the concept of marginal gains. If there are 10 risks and you mitigate 3 that leaves 7 risks instead of 10 an overall improvement.
Does wearing a mask and washing your hands when you enter/leave a shop reduce the risk of catching/passing on flu? A simple measure that has no effect on the vast majority of people. Does keeping to social distance help to reduce the spread of diseases? Another simple measure that has no practical effect on the majority of people.
No-one truly knows what impact masks have, i have no problem with washing hands continuing to be encouraged. However, social distancing does effect people , how do you expect enjoyable events like gigs to go ahead if distancing is still expected or festivals or attendance at football matches or simply socialising with friends and family in an indoor environment or even outdoors. Basically things that people enjoy doing tend to enjoy no distancing. Let's be right, it's miserable at the moment, utterly miserable so the thought of continuing some of the measures like distancing to reduce flu numbers is incredibly depressing, i can't believe it's even being suggested, especially given that we have lived with flu for thousands of years.
